Searching and displaying related content to a post in an activity stream

ABSTRACT

A method for searching and displaying content related to a post in an activity stream may include presenting, by a processor, an activity stream to a user. The activity stream may include a plurality of posts. The method may also include detecting a user action with respect to a particular post of the plurality of posts and analyzing content of the particular post. The method may additionally include searching at least other posts in the activity stream of the user for related content to the particular post based on the analysis of the content of the particular post. The method may additionally include generating a list of posts including related content to the particular post in response to the search. The method may further include presenting the list of posts comprising the related content. The list of posts provide a history or context leading up to the particular post.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/471,557, filed Aug. 28, 2014, the contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Aspects of the present invention relate to social networks, online mailclients and the like, and more particularly to a method, system andcomputer program product for searching and displaying related content toa post in an activity stream.

Online social networks are a universal mechanism to connect people andinformation in logical and organized ways which enable sharing andprocessing of information between the members of the social network.Common mechanisms for sharing and processing information on onlinesocial networks may include, but are not necessarily limited to, a wallor virtual wall where a user or member of the social network can postmessages for other users or members; an activity stream which may be alist of messages or posts received by a user or member and may alsoinclude a list of messages or posts sent by the user or member; atimeline that may chronologically list a series of events, and profilesof users or members that can be accessed for information about aparticular user or member. These mechanisms enable users or members torapidly share information with others and gather information from othersin the network. However, finding and presenting related posts can bedifficult. Activity streams present posts to the user in chronologicalorder. Therefore, related posts often do not appear together in theactivity stream. When the user views a new post, the user may beconfused or not understand the context of the post because the usercannot recall information displayed in an earlier post, or the user maynot have seen the earlier post at all. To fill in this missinginformation for complete understanding or awareness of the new orcurrent post, the user has to manually perform searches and/or filterposts by date, category or possibly some other arrangement if the userhas even established some arrangement for organizing posts. Thistechnique of finding possible related information or posts may haveadditional shortcomings, such as the user not being able to display theinformation in context, redundant information may be displayed, and theuser is not able to see chronologically what may have resulted in thenew post.

BRIEF SUMMARY

According to one aspect of the present invention, a method for searchingand displaying content related to a post in an activity stream mayinclude presenting, by a processor, an activity stream to a user. Theactivity stream may include a plurality of posts. The method may alsoinclude detecting a user action with respect to a particular post of theplurality of posts and analyzing content of the particular post. Themethod may additionally include searching at least other posts in theactivity stream of the user for related content to the particular postbased on the analysis of the content of the particular post. The methodmay additionally include generating a list of posts including relatedcontent to the particular post in response to the search. The method mayfurther include presenting the list of posts comprising the relatedcontent. The list of posts provides a history or context leading up tothe particular post.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a system forsearching and displaying content related to a post in an activity streammay include a processor and a module operating on the processor forsearching for and displaying content related to a post in an activitystream. The module may be configured to perform a set of functionsincluding presenting an activity stream to a user. The activity streammay include a plurality of posts. The module may also be configured toperform the function of the set of functions including detecting a userselecting a post of the plurality of posts and analyzing content of theselected post. The module may also perform the function of searching atleast other posts in the activity stream of the user for related contentto the selected post based on the analysis of the content of theselected post. The module may be configured to also perform thefunctions including generating a list of posts comprising relatedcontent to the selected post in response to the search and presentingthe list of posts including the related content. The list of postsprovides a history or context leading up to the particular post.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer programproduct for searching and displaying content related to a post in anactivity stream may include a computer readable storage medium havingprogram instructions embodied therewith, wherein the computer readablestorage medium is not a transitory medium per se. The programinstructions may be executable by a device to cause the device toperform a method that may include presenting an activity stream to auser. The activity stream may include a plurality of posts. The methodmay also include detecting a user selecting a post of the plurality ofposts and analyzing content of the selected post. The method mayadditionally include searching at least other posts in the activitystream of the user for related content to the selected post based on theanalysis of the content of the selected post. The method may furtherinclude generating a list of posts comprising related content to theselected post in response to the search and presenting the list of postsincluding the related content. The list of posts provides a history orcontext leading up to the particular post.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is further described in the detailed descriptionwhich follows in reference to the noted plurality of drawings by way ofnon-limiting examples of embodiments of the present invention in whichlike reference numerals represent similar parts throughout the severalviews of the drawings and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an example of a method for searching anddisplaying related content to a post in an activity stream in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is flow chart of an example of a method for filtering relatedcontent to a post in an activity stream based on a level of exposure toa user in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of a graphical user interface for controllingsearching, filtering and presenting the related content in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of an activity stream and presentation of a list ofposts including related content to a selected post in the activitystream in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block schematic diagram of an example of a system configuredfor searching and displaying related content to a post in an activitystream in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, andconventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of an example of a method 100 for searching anddisplaying related content to a post in an activity stream in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention. In block 102, an activitystream may be presented to a user in response to an action by the user.For example the user may access, enable, open or run a social mediaapplication or other application that presents the activity stream. Theactivity stream may include a plurality of posts. As used herein, a postor message may refer to any type of communications by a user orparticipant in an online social network or other network using any typeof communications application operating on any type of communicationsdevice. For example, a post may be a message in an activity streamincluding a series of messages or communications between users orparticipants in an online social network. Examples of online socialnetworks which may enable activity streams may include but is notnecessarily limited to MySpace, Facebook, IBM Connections, and LinkedIn.MySpace is a trademark in the United States, other countries or both ofMySpace LLC. Facebook is a trademark in the United States, othercountries or both of Facebook, Inc. IBM Connections is a trademark inthe United States, other countries or both of International BusinessMachines Corporation. LinkedIn is a trademark in the United States,other countries or both of LinkedIn Ltd.

In block 104, a user action may be detected with respect to a particularpost in the activity stream. For example, the user may select aparticular post in the activity stream by clicking-on the particularpost using a computer pointing device, such as a mouse, selecting theparticular post using another input device, such as the keys on akeyboard, or perform some other action to select the particular post.

In block 106, content of the particular post or post selected by theuser may be analyzed. Analyzing the particular post may include but isnot necessarily limited to at least one of determining a keyword orkeywords, a tag or tags, a topic of the particular post, and originatorof the post, a time and date of the post, a categorization of the postif the post is associated with a particular category, class or type ofpost, such as whether the post originated from a friend, an expert ormay be classified or categorized as a popular post.

Some of the terms that can represent a particular post may beself-evident as they can be stored and represented as their own explicitdata types. Such terms may not be created as specific extensions of thedata posts contained in a social network setting. The terms may berecognizable across software applications and may be intuitivelyinterpreted by humans. Examples of such terms may include but are notlimited to the date and time of a post, any keywords represented assubsets of the textual content found throughout a post or other termsthat may be self-evident as representing a particular post.

Other terms that may include more detail may be a tag or tags associatedwith a post which may be in a section of extra metadata associated witha post. The post may be represented with as few words as possible foreach tag and may involve a human summarization of a main content of thepost in an effort to better categorize the post amongst other posts orother forms of data. The topic of a post may be an explicit title if atitle is provided, or an interpreted concept not directly recorded intodata form but determined by the reader of the post by summarizingcontent in brief sentence form. The originator of the post may be theauthorized user that submitted content to the social network at aparticular time using their account. A category may be implemented in astricter sense to singly file a post in a certain category that hasmeaning, as opposed to tags that may allow a post to be filed intomultiple psuedo-categories. Categories may allow the user to infer lessabout the content of the post and more about the type of the post,showing that the ways the post may be filed do not have overlappingcategories.

A post may originate from a friend if the originator is in the “friendslist” or “network” of the user that is reading the post. The originatorof a post may be classified as an expert when the post's content isidentified as belonging to a particular field of knowledge that thesystem has determined through various criteria the originator hascommand over, or the submitted information by the originator may beconsidered highly-valued over that of others. As a non-limiting example,this criteria may be that the expert has submitted a lot of contentrelated to this knowledge area, or that his posts may appear to bewidely “popular” or received and reviewed by a certain number of usersor member of the network. Popularity may be determined by severalcriteria, some of which may be that the content is recognized by otherhighly-valued or regarded members of the social network and recognizedby a large volume or certain number of other users as having aparticular expertise or knowledge base.

The particular post or selected post may be analyzed using naturallanguage processing (NLP) or other text or language processing todetermine or identify keywords, tags, topics, etc. This processing mayoccur over any available, explicit or determined, textual content of apost. This process aims to, given the total content, categorize therelevant parts of the content into structured categories for adeterminant system to use later on when evaluating the post.

In block 108, at least other posts in the user's activity stream may besearched for related content based on the analysis of the content of theparticular post or selected post. For example, keywords, tags, topics,identification of certain people or other content from the analysis maybe matched to the content of other posts in the user's activity streamor in other sources. Examples of other sources may include but is notnecessarily limited posts in activity streams or networks of others,such as the author or originator of the particular post, posts byfriends, posts by experts, popular posts, email of the user, socialnetwork activity of the user, a web browsing history of the user orother sources that may contain related content.

In block 110, a list of posts including related content based on thesearch may be generated. The list of posts may also include relatedcontent from other sources. An identification of the other source andthe associated related content may be included in the list of posts.

In block 112, the list of posts and related content in the searchresults may be filtered. The list of posts resulting from the search maybe filtered based on one or more criteria. Examples of criteria forfiltering the list of posts and/or other related content from othersources may include but are not necessarily limited to the sametimeframe of the listed post, such as posts occurring during the sametimeframe, a determination if the user has already seen or recently seenthe particular post and/or the related content, a level of exposure bythe user to the related content, a predetermined action associated withthe related content or post by the user. For example, posts for relatedcontent which are older than a preset time frame may be filtered fromthe list of posts and related content. Posts which the user may haveresponded to may also be filtered. An example of a method forcontrolling the searching, filtering and presenting the list of postsand related content will be described in more detail with reference toFIG. 2.

Determining a level of exposure by the user to the related content maybe based on certain criteria that may be related to how the user viewedthe specific post before. For example, the criteria may involve when thepost was originally shown to the user, either as a main post the userwas reading or as a related post, and for how long the user had the poston the screen by reading it.

In block 114, the results of the search for related content andfiltering of the search results or list of posts of related contentincluding other sources of related content may be organized. Forexample, the remaining list of posts of related content may be organizedchronologically and/or based on an interest relevance to the user. Theremaining list of posts after filtering may be organized chronologicallybased on a perceived time of an event referenced in the remaining searchresults or posts. If the time of the event cannot be determined, thetime of the post may be used for listing the post. The ordering may beascending or descending chronological order based on user preference.Organizing the remaining list of posts based on an interest relevance tothe user may include rank ordering the list of posts based on apredetermined ranking or priority assigned to particular topics,keywords or tags that are matched, particular categories or classes ofposts, identification of people or other parameter. Other mechanisms fororganizing the list of posts may also be used.

In block 116, the results of the search and filtering may be presentedto the user. Accordingly, the remaining list of related posts andassociated content which may include related content from other sources,such as those previously described, may be presented to the user. Thelist of posts provides a history or context leading up to the particularpost. The list of posts and related content is intended to provide amore complete understanding of the post selected by the user. Forexample, the list of posts may provide a stream of content frominception of a particular topic to the time of the selected post tobring the user up to date or familiarize the user about previous postsand/or other activity of the user, such as e-mail communications,browser history, or the like. An example of an activity stream andpresentation of a list of posts including related content to a selectedpost in an activity stream in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

FIG. 2 is flow chart of an example of a method 200 for filtering a listof posts of related content based on a level of exposure to a user inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The method 200may be embodied in block 112 or may be part of the functions performedin block 112 of FIG. 1. In block 202, a graphical user interface (GUI)may be presented to the user. The GUI may include features forcontrolling the searching, filtering and presentation of posts includingrelated content to a particular post in an activity stream selected by auser similar to that previously described. The features in the GUI maybe selected or specified prior to the method 100 being performed. Anexample of a GUI for controlling the searching, filtering andpresentation of a list of posts including related content in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention will be described withreference to FIG. 3 below.

In block 204, a level of exposure by the user to the content of theselected post may be determined. Determining a level of exposure by theuser to the content of a post may include but is not necessarily limitedto a predetermined action by the user associated with the post, relatedposts that have been seen by the user within a preset time frame, andcommunications from or to the user related to the post or content of thepost. An example of a predetermined action by the user associated withthe post or content of the post may include additional posts by the userrelated to the content or commenting about the content of the post. Aspreviously described, determining the level of exposure by the user tothe content of the post may be based on matching at least a portion ofthe content of the selected post to at least one of another post, anemail associated with the user that references the content or a portionof the content of the selected post, social network activity of theuser, a web browsing history of the user or other user activity relatedto the content or portion of the content of the post.

In block 206, a determination may be made if the level of exposure bythe user to the content of a post in the list of posts exceeds a presetthreshold. If the level of exposure exceeds the preset threshold, themethod 200 may advance to block 208. In block 208, the post may bedeleted from the search results or list of posts in accordance with atleast one embodiment of the invention. In accordance with anotherembodiment, if the level of exposure of the related content of the postin the list of posts exceeds the preset threshold, the post may behidden from view when the list of posts are presented. An indication ofthe hidden post may be presented in the list of posts. The indicationmay be an icon or placeholder in the list of posts or some otherindication. The indication may either be a general icon for all hiddenposts, or it can be a limited representation of the specific post beinghidden, meant to signify that user exposure to the post was high. Thecalculated level of exposure may also be presented with the indicationof the hidden post. The indication of the hidden post may also include alink to the hidden post. The user may then activate the link or click-onthe indication of the hidden post to access or display the hidden post.One example of a scenario in which a post may be hidden may be a postincluding a link to an article on a website because the user has alreadybookmarked or “liked” the article on the website since the article wascreated. Another exemplary scenario in which a post may be hidden may bea post that includes a status update, such as, “just pitched abc to execA” because a record exists that the user has discussed abc with person“A” in the social software system. A further scenario where the post maybe hidden in the list of posts may be a status update, such as “justmade deal selling 100 k seats of abc”, because the user has already readan email from management that references 100 k seats of abc being sold.

If the level of exposure does not exceed the preset threshold in block206, the method 200 may advance to block 210. In block 210, the post andassociated content may be included in the search results or list ofposts including the content related to the content of the selected postin the user's activity stream.

FIG. 3 is an example of a GUI 300 including features for controlling thesearching, filtering and presentation of the related content or postsincluding related content in accordance with an embodiment of thepresent invention. The GUI 300 may include a feature 302 configured forsetting a threshold value of the level of exposure by the user torelated content in other posts or other sources as described herein. Thethreshold value may be the threshold used in block 206 of FIG. 2.Accordingly, the threshold value may be preset by the user. In anotherexample, this threshold may appear as several values or settings, havinga threshold or weight associated with each field in this form.

The GUI 300 may also include a feature 304 configured for selectingother sources that may be searched for related content. Examples ofother sources that may be searched for related content in addition tothe users activity stream may include but is not necessarily limited toe-mails associated with the user, social network activity of the user,activity streams of other users in a social network, an activity streamof an originator of the selected post in the user's activity stream, aweb browsing history of the user, etc. A setting or weighting 305 mayalso be selected or set for each source based on a level of importanceof the source, priority of the source or other characteristic associatedwith the source. The user may also specify other sources and set aweighting or priority.

The GUI 300 may additionally include a feature 306 configured fordefining or selecting criteria for filtering the list of posts includingrelated content and other sources of related content to the postselected in the user's activity stream. The criteria for filtering maybe similar to that previously described, for example, determining alevel of exposure of the user to the content, a time frame of the post,and any other criteria that may result in deemphasizing a particularpost or related content. A setting or weighting 307 may also be selectedor set for each criteria. The GUI 300 may further include a feature 308configured for specifying an interest relevance for rank ordering orprioritizing the list of posts similar to that previously described. Avalue 309 or percentage may be set for association with each interestrelevance. For each section of the GUI 300 that a user may select from alist of entries, the user may also be able to specify additional entriesconcerning, but not limited to, other sources of content, criteria, andrelevant interests.

FIG. 4 is an example of an activity stream 400 and presentation of alist of posts 402 including related content to a selected post 404 inthe activity stream in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention. The list of posts 402 may be generated by performing thesearching and filtering operations previously described with referenceto the exemplary methods 100 and 200 in FIGS. 1 and 2 respectively. Asillustrated in the example of FIG. 4 the list of posts 402 may bepresented in a separate view from the activity stream 400 of the user.Similar to that previously described, the list of posts 402 of relatedcontent may be presented in response to the user selecting or“clicking-on” the particular post 404 using a computer pointing device,such as a mouse or other pointing device. Each post 402 the list ofrelated posts may also include an indicator 406 of how or why each post402 was eventually included, possibly by related content, as an expertreference, or other reason why the post is included.

FIG. 5 is a block schematic diagram of an example of a system 500configured for searching, filtering and displaying related content to aselected post in an activity stream in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention. The method 100 of FIG. 1 and method 200 of FIG. 2may be embodied in and performed by the system 500. The system 500 mayinclude a processing device 502. The processing device 502 may be aserver or similar processing device. The processing device 502 mayinclude a processor 504 for controlling operation of the processingdevice 502 and for performing functions, such as those described hereinwith respect to searching, filtering and presenting posts includingrelated content to a selected post in a user's activity stream. Theprocessing device 502 may also include a file system 506 or memory. Anoperating system 508, applications and other programs may be stored onthe file system 506 for running or operating on the processor 504. Asocial networking module 510 or system may also be stored on the filesystem 506 and may be compiled and run on the processor 504 to performthe functions for conducting online communications or activity streamsbetween users similar to that described herein. The social networkingmodule 510 may be any type of online communications mechanism for onlinecommunications or conversations. The methods 100 and 200 of FIGS. 1 and2 respectively may be embodied in the social networking module 510 andperformed by the processor 504 when the social networking module 510 iscompiled and run on the processor 504.

The social networking module 510 may include a related content module512. Similar to that previously described, the related content module512 may be configured to search for related content to content in aselected post in a user's activity stream, filter a resulting list ofposts including related content and present the filtered list of postssimilar to that described with reference to the methods 100 and 200 inFIGS. 1 and 2. In another embodiment, the related content module 512 maybe separate from the social networking module 510 and operate incoordination with the social network module 510 to perform theoperations described herein.

The processing device 502 may also include one or more input devices,output devices or combination input/output devices, collectively I/Odevices 516. The I/O devices 516 may include, but are not necessarilylimited to, a keyboard or keypad, pointing device, such as a mouse, diskdrive and any other devices to permit a user to interface with andcontrol operation of the processing device 502 and to access the socialnetworking module 510 or system. At least one of the I/O devices 516 maybe a device to read a computer program product, such as computer programproduct 518. The computer program product 518 may be similar to thatdescribed in more detail herein. The social networking module 510 may beloaded on the file system 506 from a computer program product, such ascomputer program product 518.

A member of a social network or user 522 of the system 500 for socialnetworking may use a computer system 524 or communications device toaccess the processing device 502 or server and social networking module510 or system. The computer system 524 or communications device may beany sort of communications device including a mobile or handheldcomputer or communications device. The computer system 524 may include aprocessor 526 to control operation of the computer system 524 and a filesystem 528, memory or similar data storage device. An operating system530, applications 532 and other programs may be stored on the filesystem 528 for running or operating on the processor 526. A web orInternet browser 534 may also be stored on the file system 528 foraccessing the processing device 502 or server via a network 536. Thenetwork 536 may be the Internet, an intranet or other private orproprietary network.

In accordance with an embodiment, a social networking application 538,feature or module may also be stored on the file system 528 and operateon the processor 526 of the user's computer system 524. The socialnetworking application 538 may any sort of online communicationsmechanism, such as a social networking or social media application,electronic mail client or email application, or other application foronline communications or conversations capable of performing thefunctions and operations described herein. The social networkingapplication 538 may include a related content module 540 for searching,filtering and presenting posts including related content to a selectedpost in the user's activity stream similar to that described herein. Inanother embodiment, the related content module 540 may be a separatemodule from the social networking application 538 and operate incooperation with the social networking application 538 to perform thefunctions described herein. The social networking application 538operating on the computer system 524 may interface with or operate inconjunction with the social networking module 510 or system on theprocessing device 502 or server to perform the functions and operationsdescribed herein for searching, filtering and presenting posts includingrelated content to a selected post in the user's activity stream.Accordingly, social networking application 538 operating on the computersystem 524 may perform some of the functions and operations of themethods 100 and 200 and social networking module 510 operating on theserver 502 may perform other functions of the methods 100 and 200. Someembodiments of the present invention may include only the socialnetworking module 510 and related content module 512 on the processingdevice 502 or server, and other embodiments may include only the socialnetworking application 538 and related content module 540 on the clientcomputer system 524 or communications device.

The computer system 524 may also include a display 542, a speaker system544, and a microphone 546 for voice communications. One or more userinterfaces may be presented on the display 542 for controlling operatingthe social networking module 510 and social networking application 538and for performing the operations and functions described herein. Forexample, the GUI 300 may be presented to a user for controlling thesearching, filtering and presentation of related content similar to thatpreviously described.

The computer system 524 may also include one or more input devices,output devices or combination input/output devices, collectively I/Odevices 548. The I/O devices 548 may include a keyboard or keypad,pointing device, such as a mouse, disk drives and any other devices topermit a user, such as user 522, to interface with and control operationof the computer system 524 and to access the social networkingapplication 538 and social networking module or system 510 on server402. The I/O devices 548 may also include at least one device configuredto read computer code from a computer program product, such as computerprogram product 518.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of embodiments ofthe invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the”are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the contextclearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that theterms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification,specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations,elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence oraddition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations,elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to embodiments of the invention in the form disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of embodiments ofthe invention. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to bestexplain the principles of embodiments of the invention and the practicalapplication, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art tounderstand embodiments of the invention for various embodiments withvarious modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art appreciate that anyarrangement which is calculated to achieve the same purpose may besubstituted for the specific embodiments shown and that embodiments ofthe invention have other applications in other environments. Thisapplication is intended to cover any adaptations or variations of thepresent invention. The following claims are in no way intended to limitthe scope of embodiments of the invention to the specific embodimentsdescribed herein.

1. A method for searching and displaying content related to a post in anactivity stream, comprising: analyzing, by a processor, content of aparticular post in the activity stream in response to selection of theparticular post by a user; searching, by the processor, at least otherposts in the activity stream of the user for related content to theparticular post based on the analysis of the content of the particularpost; generating, by the processor, a list of posts comprising relatedcontent to the particular post in response to the search; filtering, bythe processor, the list of posts based at least on a level of exposureby the user to the related content; determining, by the processor, thelevel of exposure by the user to the related content based on matchingat least a portion of the content of the particular post to at least oneof another post, email associated with the user, social network activityassociated the user, and a web browsing history of the user; andpresenting, by the processor, the list of posts comprising the relatedcontent, the list of posts providing a history or context leading up tothe particular post to the user.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinanalyzing the content of the particular post comprises performing atleast natural language processing to determine a keyword from thecontent of the particular post and wherein searching at least the otherposts in the activity stream of the user comprises matching the keywordto content in at least the other posts in the activity stream of theuser.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the content of theparticular post comprises identifying at least one of a keyword, a tag,a topic of the particular post, and an originator of the particularpost.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising identifying relatedcontent to the particular post by matching at least one of the keyword,the tag, the topic of the particular post and the originator of theparticular post in at least other posts in the activity stream of theuser.
 5. The method of claim 3, further comprising identifying relatedcontent to the particular post by matching at least one of the keyword,the tag, the topic of the particular post and the originator of theparticular post in at least other posts in the activity stream of theuser, other posts by the originator of the particular post, posts byfriends, posts by experts and popular posts.
 6. The method of claim 1,further comprising filtering the list of posts based at least on a timeframe of each post of the list posts.
 7. (canceled)
 8. (canceled)
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein presenting the list of posts comprises hidingany post of the list of posts comprising a level of exposure greaterthan a preset threshold value.
 10. The method of claim 9, furthercomprising presenting a graphical user interface that allows the user toset, adjust and modify the preset threshold value for the level ofexposure, the graphical user interface further comprising a feature forspecifying parameters for controlling searching, filtering andpresenting the list of posts.
 11. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising assigning a level of exposure threshold based on identifyingan exposure of the related content by the user based on searching emailsassociated with the user, social activity associated the user and a webbrowsing history of the user.
 12. The method of claim 1, whereinsearching at least other posts in the activity stream of the usercomprises searching for the related content in other sources, whereinother sources comprise a website, an online news source, a forum, asocial network, and a corpus of knowledge.
 13. The method of claim 1,wherein presenting the list of posts comprising the related contentcomprises presenting the list of posts in a view combined or separatefrom the activity stream of the user. 14.-20. (canceled)
 21. The methodof claim 1, wherein presenting the list of posts comprises presentingthe list of posts in chronological order.
 22. The method of claim 1,further comprising providing a GUI including a feature configured forrank ordering or prioritizing the list of posts.
 23. The method of claim22, wherein presenting the list of post comprises presenting the list ofposts based on an interest relevance to the user.
 24. The method ofclaim 1, wherein presenting the list of posts comprises: hiding any postof the list of posts comprising a level of exposure greater than apreset threshold value; and providing an indication of any hidden post.25. The method of claim 24, further comprising providing a link to thehidden post.
 26. A method for searching and displaying content relatedto a post in an activity stream, comprising: presenting, by a processor,an activity stream to a user, the activity stream comprising a pluralityof posts; detecting, by the processor, selection of a particular post ofthe plurality of posts by user; analyzing, by the processor, content ofthe particular post in the activity stream in response to selection ofthe particular post by the user; searching, by the processor, at leastother posts in the activity stream of the user for related content tothe particular post based on the analysis of the content of theparticular post; generating, by the processor, a list of postscomprising related content to the particular post in response to thesearch; determining, by the processor, a level of exposure by the userto the related content based on matching at least a portion of thecontent of the particular post to at least one of another post, emailassociated with the user, social network activity associated the user,and a web browsing history of the user; filtering, by the processor, thelist of posts based at least on the level of exposure by the user to therelated content; and presenting, by the processor, the list of postscomprising the related content, the list of posts providing a history orcontext leading up to the particular post to the user.
 27. The method ofclaim 26, further comprising identifying related content to theparticular post by matching at least one of the keyword, the tag, thetopic of the particular post and the originator of the particular postin at least other posts in the activity stream of the user, other postsby the originator of the particular post, posts by friends, posts byexperts and popular posts.
 28. A method for searching and displayingcontent related to a post in an activity stream, comprising: presenting,by a processor, an activity stream to a user, the activity streamcomprising a plurality of posts; detecting, by the processor, selectionof a particular post of the plurality of posts by user; analyzing, bythe processor, content of the particular post in the activity stream inresponse to selection of the particular post by the user; searching, bythe processor, at least other posts in the activity stream of the userfor related content to the particular post based on the analysis of thecontent of the particular post; generating, by the processor, a list ofposts comprising related content to the particular post in response tothe search; assigning a level of exposure threshold based on identifyingan exposure of the related content by the user based on searching emailsassociated with the user, social activity associated the user and a webbrowsing history of the user; filtering, by the processor, the list ofposts based the level of exposure by the user to the related content;and presenting, by the processor, the list of posts comprising therelated content, the list of posts providing a history or contextleading up to the particular post to the user.
 29. The method of claim28, further comprising determining the level of exposure by the user tothe related content based on matching at least a portion of the contentof the particular post to at least one of another post, email associatedwith the user, social network activity associated the user, and a webbrowsing history of the user.